Wednesday, January 01, 2014

Wed Jan 1st Todays News

The Iraqi communication's Minister, labelled Comical Ali who claimed the US was retreating as Baghdad was invaded was heard in spirit from AGW icebound vessel claiming "It is raining." Raining so much that the ice held fast and could not be breached by an ice breaker, or accessed by a helicopter. The so called researchers had gone to Antarctica in high summer to measure ice loss. Now, they will only be able to report that they could not measure it because of conditions. It snowed four times in London in the 20th Century. But it has snowed some six times already in the 21st century. It snowed in London some 17 times in the nineteenth century, and in eight consecutive years corresponding to the birth of Charles Dickens. So that a number of Dicken's books refer to a snowy Christmas in London. And because that is part of literature, there is an expectation that that will happen, and disappointment when it doesn't. How will the world, which has given $trillions to AGW believers, react when it registers that the money was merely diverted from the poorest and most vulnerable to feed fantasists? On the issue of fantasists, budget papers have been released relating to '87/'88. Bolt as a younger man did good writing for Hawke, but the little discussed truth is that the Hawke government which won election against Howard during a Joh for Canberra push was not good, but the best the ALP has offered to date. Hawke lacked talent in ministry but was able to exploit opposition division. The government of the day ran on an Australia card concept it never implemented. Hawke declared "No child would be alive in poverty by 1990" and although he worked hard to ensure that, they are hardy buggers. NYE coverage by the ABC had as a centre piece the 6.8 million dollar Harbour bridge extravaganza. Just as Clover Moore's name was announced as Sydney's Lord Mayor who had authorised the bill, the bridge lit up an 'eye of Sauron' display. The music played on the ABC telecast was awful. Truly a testimony to what was left behind with ALP government in 2013. Happy New Year.

Miranda Devine – Wednesday,January 01,2014 (8:49am)

HOW many global warming scientists does it take to get stuck in Antarctic ice?

When I posed a question like this on Twitter, the inmates went wild - led by Dr Craig Emerson. He missed the irony of an expedition trapped by record ice while trying to prove the east Antarctic ice sheet is melting.

Verballing opponents like this is a classic trick of the Apocalypti. Let’s break it down for slow learners.

Everyone agrees the climate always changes. Tick. Most people accept the greenhouse hypothesis. Tick. Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas. Tick. Carbon dioxide is increasing, and that should lead to warming. Humans produce some of the increased carbon dioxide. Tick. Tick.

The dispute is over the extent of warming caused by the extra carbon dioxide, and thus whether catastrophes claimed by climate alarmists will occur.

Mathematical models have been used to predict climate apocalypse. Thus far they are wrong in their temperature forecasts.

Despite increased carbon dioxide, world temperatures have not budged for 16 years. The ice caps have not melted. Polar bears are enjoying a population explosion. Antarctica has cooled and sea ice has increased to record highs.

Which brings us to our merry explorers on their marooned $1.5 million University of NSW-sponsored mission.

As he waited for a helicopter to winch him out, team leader Professor Chris Turney was clinging to credibility like the black knight in Monty Python.

Miranda Devine – Tuesday,December 31,2013 (6:52pm)

NOW the Year of the Selfie is over, and a conservative government is in charge, we can look forward to the following dispatches from Gnashville over the next 12 months.

Pope Francis disappoints.

For all his humility and eschewing of red papal loafers so remarked upon by progressives, in 2014 the Pope does not give his blessing to abortion, gay marriage and female priests.

He doesn’t appoint Mary McAleese to the College of Cardinals. Nor does he excommunicate George Pell and Tony Abbott. Holy black-buckled brogues! Maybe he’s a Catholic after all.

Peter Cosgrove is the worst Governor-General ever.

Actually, this was the theme of The Sydney Morning Herald’s Letters to the Editor in the last week of 2013 but, increasingly, these unconscious self-satires are a leading indicator of junk opinion.

What’s wrong with the esteemed General? Let the Letterati count the ways:

1. He is a man (Robyn Stinson, Randwick);

2. He was commander of peacekeeping forces in East Timor during alleged illegal spying by the Australian government (Chris Smith, ACT);

3. He makes (Megan Heaney, Kincumber) feel “uneasy”;

4. He is “bulky” (Megan Brock, Summer Hill);

5. He encourages beer-drinking on Anzac Day by endorsing the “Raise a Glass appeal” for Legacy (Roger Halsted, Albury); and

6. He isn’t Mitchell Johnson (Claire Bowdler, Newtown).

Save the refugees.

After showing little interest in the arrival of 50,000 asylum seekers under Labor, in 2014 a tally is kept on a dedicated ABC webpage of asylum boat arrivals under the Abbott government.

Actually, that already happened nine days after the election, but who’s counting.

Stand by for stories about the inhumanity of Scott Morrison, and how Manus Island is another Auschwitz.

Expect to see much more of refugee activists such as Julian “pedos in speedos” Burnside on your ABC. They might gnash their teeth about a conservative government but secretly they are relieved. Refugees are cool again.

Is that the truth or was your News Limited?

The meme of the 2013 election continues on bumper stickers for 40-something wannabe hipsters in Subarus.

But you will have to overlook the fact that if you relied on the Fairfax/ABC/ Guardian axis for your news, you wouldn’t know that Labor stuffed up on pink batts, overpriced school halls, the NBN, border protection, and the budget. You would have been shocked when Kevin Rudd was overthrown by his colleagues. You wouldn’t believe Julia Gillard lied about the carbon tax.

You might not know police are investigating the slush fund she allegedly help set up 20 years ago for her then unionist boyfriend.

You wouldn’t realise that half of Brisbane’s devastating 2011 floods were caused by mismanagement of the Wivenhoe Dam. You’d probably think Clive Palmer was as rich as he says he is.

You wouldn’t know Australian spy agencies targeted the phone of Indonesia’s first lady in 2009 because she was President Yudhoyono’s most influential adviser and trying to woo Islamic groups.

You might believe Wayne Swan really was the world’s best treasurer and would have brought the budget into surplus this year.

Summer is really really hot.

There may even be bushfires. Expect more stories on “extreme weather events” which are, of course, all the fault of Mr Rabbitt.

Abbott is the worst Prime Minister ever.

He’ll lose the next election if he isn’t bumped off first by marvellous Malcolm.

Liberated from the humiliating consequences of their wishes being granted by Labor, the left is gleeful.

Moral posturing is so much more fun when there’s a conservative PM to demonise.

No longer do they have to shuffle about in embarrassed silence as asylum seekers drown and economic chancers flood through the open borders they demanded, while persecuted Christian refugees suffer out of sight.

No longer do they have to bluster as electricity prices soar, manufacturers go under and the world’s temperature doesn’t budge for 16 years. No longer do they have to turn a blind eye to child abuse and make adoption taboo due to their obsession with the stolen generations.

Yes, the last six years have been agony for the Letterati but they now can return to their default position of all care, no responsibility.

Tim Blair – Wednesday,January 01,2014 (1:48pm)

The Telegraph is receiving a remarkable number of complaints today about last night’s NYE coverage on the ABC (things really begin falling apart at the 25 minute mark). These furious callers follow earlier Twitter rage:

Tim Blair – Wednesday,January 01,2014 (4:03am)

The expedition of warmists now on a Russian ship trapped in ice is
called “Spirit of Mawson” in honor of explorer Douglas Mawson who, a
century ago, spent two years on Antarctica during which he lost two
colleagues on a trek. Mawson himself survived only by eating his
huskies and trudging back on feet that had lost the skin of the soles.
Guardian journalist Laurence Topham on the “Spirit of Mawson”
now demonstrates how that spirit lives on in this ship of warmists,
awaiting rescue by helicopter after a week trapped in ice they’d
assumed was melting away:

It is quite stressful… I miss banana and peanut butter milkshakes… I’ve
got this really thin, small bed… I’ve hurt my back… I jammed my leg in
the door last night… And it’s only going to get worse… Stranded in ice.
Oh, God I’m going mad.

STEVE CANNANE, PRESENTER: Could the great British
Antarctic explorer Robert Scott have survived his epic journey if he’d
chosen his team more wisely? That’s the view of Professor Chris Turney
from the University of NSW who is about to lead one of Australia’s
largest science expeditions to the frozen continent.
In this second and final preview of his trip, Professor Turney tells
reporter Margo O’Neill he’s learnt from the life and death experiences
of early explorers like Scott…
CHRIS TURNEY, CLIMATE CHANGE RESEARCH CENTRE, UNSW: So we’ve got a
really good team and hopefully they won’t go psycho on us. (laughs)…
MARGOT O’NEILL: Initially there were few applicants, so Chris Turney
re-versioned Ernest Shackleton’s apocryphal advertisement: “Wanted for
hazardous journey. Low wages, bitter cold, long hours of complete
darkness. Safe return doubtful. Honour and recognition assured."…
CHRIS TURNEY: It seemed to have gone viral. We were getting a few
applications before then and suddenly the blog entry went crazy....
MARGOT O’NEILL: But it’s not exactly a luxury cruise and one of
Australia’s Mount Everest heroes and an Antarctic veteran, Greg
Mortimer, was brought on to find the right kind of people.
GREG MORTIMER, MOUNTAINEER: People who can grasp the highs and lows of
what we’re going to do and it’s quite a big ask, this trip. There has
been some whittling going on over the last months and a few people have
fallen by the wayside.
MARGOT O’NEILL: Choosing the wrong team member meant the difference
between life and death for British explorer Robert Scott. Professor
Turney researched the stories of last century’s great ice men and became
haunted by their fate.
CHRIS TURNEY: It’s that sort of extreme environment. The smallest mistakes can cascade into a disaster.

The ABC promised an update on the expedition of these rugged and
desperately brave warmists to find the truth about global warming:

MARGOT O’NEILL: The expedition sails south tomorrow on a mission to
revive the spirit of one of Australia’s greatest scientific explorations
for a new generation grappling with climate change.
Lateline will broadcast an update early next year.

Can’t wait. Any guesses on how the ABC will gloss over the embarrassment
of Turney’s expedition getting trapped in the ice they claimed was
melting?
I’m betting it won’t start the way Tim Blair’s piece does:

IT began as a journey to “investigate the impact of changing climate”
and to “use the subantarctic islands as thermometers of climatic change”
but more than 70 global warming activists, journalists and crew, led by
University of NSW professor of climate change Chris Turney, are now
trapped by millions of tonnes of ice after their ship was caught in
freezing conditions off the Antarctic coast.

The first error expedition leaders made was under-estimating the
prevailing sea ice conditions at Mawson Station, their destination. The
scientists seemed to be convinced that Antarctica was a warmer place
today than it had been 100 years earlier, and thus perhaps they could
expect less sea ice there. This in turn would allow them to charter a
lighter, cheaper vessel.
This seems to be the case judging by their choice of seafaring vessel.
They chartered a Russian vessel MS Akademik Shokalskiy, an
ice-strengthened ship built in Finland in 1982. According to Wikipedia
the ship has two passenger decks, with dining rooms, a bar, a library,
and a sauna, and accommodates 54 passengers and a crew of up to 30.
Though it is ice-reinforced, it is not an ice-breaker. This is a rather
surprising selection for an expedition to Antarctica, especially in view
that the AAE website itself expected to travel through areas that even
icebreakers at times are unable to penetrate, as we are now vividly
witnessing. Perhaps the price for chartering the Russian vessel was too
good to pass up.
What made the expedition even more dubious is that Turney and his team
brought on paying tourists in what appears to have been an attempt to
help defer the expedition’s costs and to be a source of cheap labor.
According to the AAE website, the expedition was costed at US$1.5
million, which included the charter of the Akademik Shokalskiy to access
the remote locations. “The site berths on board are available for
purchase.” Prices start at $8000!
The expedition brought with it 4 journalists, 26 paying tourists.
Here it seems that the obvious risks and hazards of bringing tourists to
the world’s harshest environment in a budget-priced vessel unable to
handle ice-breaking may have been brushed aside, or at least played
down. Was this reckless on the part of the expedition? That Antarctica
is a harsh environment was in fact known to expedition leader Chris
Turney: Bild online here quotes Turney: “In the Antarctic the conditions
are so extreme that you can never make forecasts.” Is this an
environment you’d want to bring unfamiliar tourists in – on a vessel
that cannot even break ice?

Greetings from Casey Station on the East Antarctic
coast. I’ve just returned from the deep field site at Aurora Basin where
the Australians are drilling a new 400-meter ice core which we will
analyze in my lab in Reno.
I’m writing with regards to the rescue effort for that tourist ship
stuck in the ice near Commonwealth Bay and the enormous impact of the
rescue effort on Antarctic science programs. The Australian ice breaker
Aurora Australis was here at Casey in the process of unloading the
coming year’s supplies for the station, as well as a number of
researchers and their science gear for this summer’s activities, when
the emergency response request was issued. The Australians shut down the
unloading very quickly and left within a few hours after the request
arrived but only about a third of the resupply was completed and a lot
of that science gear was still on board. Before they left they at least
were able to get the passengers including six Aurora Basin researchers
off the ship. Otherwise I’d still be at Aurora Basin and would have had
to stay to the end of January since my field replacement was in that
group.
The short- and long-term impacts on the Australian science program are
pronounced as you can imagine and I understand it is the same for both
the Chinese and French programs since their icebreakers were diverted,
too. I’ll be sitting down to New Year’s Eve dinner in a few minutes with
a number of Australian researchers including the director of the
Australian Antarctic Division Tony Fleming– many of these guys can’t
complete the research they’ve been planning for years because some or
all of their science gear still is on the Aurora.

But it would be mean to say Turney’s expedition was more a frolic - or a
Quixotic quest - than a serious scientific exercise. Check the number
of high-profile researchers he had on board:

We spent the rest of the day eating, mucking about and enjoying
ourselves. There was a small party in the bar and we all had secret
santa gifts and I happily got videos of people doing some crazy dancing.
During that time I also tried to get a few phone calls out to my
friends back in Oz. Turns out Damon was happy and so was my friend
Jonathon.

Who paid for all this? Who pays the millions for the rescue?
(Thanks to reader George.)

“WHAT you’re seeing is how a civilisation commits suicide,”
says Camille Paglia. This self-described “notorious Amazon feminist”
isn’t telling anyone to Lean In or asking Why Women Still Can’t Have It
All. No, her indictment may be as surprising as it is wide-ranging: The
military is out of fashion; Americans undervalue manual labour; schools
neuter male students; opinion-makers deny the biological differences
between men and women; and sexiness is dead. And that’s just 20 minutes
of our three-hour conversation.

Why didn’t these former Labor leaders demand Labor stop racking up this debt in the first place?

BOB Hawke and Paul Keating have urged the Abbott government to slash spending and
speedily repair the budget bottom line, arguing they faced up to a
similar challenge in 1986-87 when the terms of trade collapsed and the
dollar plummeted.
“It’s a very, very large budget deficit that you’re looking at,
projecting $47 billion, and they seem to be walking away from the
suggestion that they can move into surplus in this first term,” said Mr
Hawke, the prime minister from 1983 to 1991.
“What is required is the same thing. You’ve got to have a prime minister
and treasurer, and a competent ministry which understands the issue and
is prepared to make hard decisions. So it’s the same challenge.”
Mr Keating, treasurer during the period, told The Australian that having
informed voters “we couldn’t go on maintaining the standard of living
we had become accustomed to”, he had to follow through with “structural
adjustments to the economy and cut spending across the board”.

I assume that when Abbott does indeed slash spending that Hawke and
Keating will defend him from the opportunistic attacks of the Labor
Party that blew the Budget Abbott must now fix.
No?

Maurice Newman, former chairman of the ABC and now chairman of the Prime
Minister’s Business Advisory Council, yesterday pointed out the folly of the global warming movement.
Temperatures had not in fact risen by any statistically significant
amount for 17 years now, and the “solutions” to this (non) warming were
not just useless but cripplingly expensive.
To this argument, citing evidence, comes fact-free abuse from people claiming to be moralists.
Professional alarmist Tim Flannery, notorious for a spectacular record of dud predictions, resorts to something close to defamation:

The absolute certainty of the uninformed zealot.
UPDATE
Schopenhauer in theArt of Rhetoricdescribed this kind of abuse as the last of 38 ways to win an argument when the facts are against you:

A last trick is to become personal, insulting, rude, as soon as you
perceive that your opponent has the upper hand, and that you are going
to come off worst. It consists in passing from the subject of dispute,
as from a lost game, to the disputant himself, and in some way attacking
his person… But in becoming personal you leave the subject altogether,
and turn your attack to his person, by remarks of an offensive and
spiteful character. It is an appeal from the virtues of the intellect to
the virtues of the body, or to mere animalism. This is a very popular
trick, because every one is able to carry it into effect; and so it is
of frequent application…
As a sharpening of wits, controversy is often, indeed, of mutual
advantage, in order to correct one’s thoughts and awaken new views. But
in learning and in mental power both disputants must be tolerably equal.
If one of them lacks learning, he will fail to understand the other, as
he is not on the same level with his antagonist. If he lacks mental
power, he will be embittered, and led into dishonest tricks, and end by
being rude.

The abuse from a Flannery demonstrates that even he realises his game is up.

Happy Christmas to the world from the Australasian Antarctic Expedition!
We are celebrating Christmas in an amazing place- 66?41’ S, 144?18’ E
to be precise. We’ve been here or hereabouts for over a day now,
drifting with the pack ice, officially ‘beset’. Our ship the Shokalskiy
is ice strengthened, not an ice breaker and the ice around us is
currently beyond us.

Comedian Wendy Harmer cannot see the joke of global warmists (led by
Professor Chris Turney) stuck in ice they assumed would be melted away:

BAD weather yesterday thwarted a planned helicopter
evacuation of 42 scientists, tourists and media trapped aboard a Russian
ship in Antarctic sea ice in Commonwealth Bay since Christmas…
Cruise organisers yesterday were attempting to downplay the scientific
nature of the voyage following a barrage of negative comments online.
Many posts had highlighted the irony of climate change scientists being
stuck in the ice…
A spokesman for the expedition said it was wrong to describe the voyage
as a climate change journey despite there being climate scientists on
board.
But the website promoting the journey said there were “numerous science
questions that need to be urgently addressed ... There is an increasing
body of evidence that has identified parts of the East Antarctic which
are highly susceptible to melting and collapse from ocean warming.”

Phillips is now on the icebreaker which tried and failed to free the Shokalskiy and its mortified warmists. Her reports are now free of any mention of global warming now that she’s staring at record ice instead of melted glaciers.
You see, the sea ice around Antarctica isn’t showing any evidence of a warming planet:

UPDATE
What ice? What cold? Can’t you feel the global warming?
Professor Chis Turney seems so embarrassed by having his global warming
alarmism exposed by the ice around his expedition’s ship that he’s taken
to wearing just a shirt with the sleeves rolled up, even while the rest
of the expedition are in parkas and heavy jumpers:

<Even as the world’s top diplomats celebrated a tentative nuclear/sanctions deal that many believe will not stop Iran’s capacity to go nuclear, few leaders condemned Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei for his unabated public slurs and genocidal threats against the Jewish State. "I can not escape the irony of those nations' own track records.

Doctors are good. But God is greater - ed
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===USCB welcomes the release of 5 political prisoners today and charges dropped against many more.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights rightly acknowledges this does NOT fulfill Thein Sein's pledge to release all political prisoners by the end of 2013. Calls for the release of all and the repeal of oppressive laws.

"U.S. officials are getting ahead of themselves when they assert that the administration has been “standing up” against atrocities, given that attacks have continued almost unabated with little or no consequences for the killers."

"Burma could one day be a foreign-policy success story, but without constant vigilance by the United States, both in word and deed, it could tip into failure."

===I cannot follow you, my love, you cannot follow me. I am the distance you put between all of the moments that we will be. You know who I am, you've stared at the sun,well I am the one who loveschanging from nothing to one.Sometimes I need you naked,sometimes I need you wild,I need you to carry my children inand I need you to kill a child.You know who I am...If you should ever track me downI will surrender thereand I will leave with you one broken manwhom I will teach you to repair.You know who I am...I cannot follow you, my love,you cannot follow me.I am the distance you put betweenall of the moments that we will be.You know who I am…
===

The problem, to my way of seeing things, is evolutionists who make claims about evolution that are not true. Evolution does not disprove God. Intelligent design is arrant foolishness based on the evolution disproves god fallacy. Creationism, where it is placed in opposition to evolution is meaningless. I probably did not have lizard ancestors, which is sad news for those cousins of mine hoping to grow a tail. But I had stone age ancestors and earlier .. and my people came to know God as the bible is written. - ed
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As a Christian I cannot support terrorism or apartheid, which is why I stand up for Israel. The wall has served to prevent killing of women and children by those who want to ethnically cleanse land of its' native peoples. - ed
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===Plastic bottle sealed at 14,000 feet (4267 m) on Mauna Kea observatory on the island of Hawaii, taken down to 9000 feet (2743 m) and then 1000 feet (305 m), where the change in air pressure had crushed it.
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6 months agoyes I agree this is a good song and a good television series family ties I used to watch this in the 1980s. even though Alex Keaton and Mallory were crappy Conservatives ... Reaganomics WAS TERRIBLE ITS COMPARABLE TO GENOCIDE EXPECT THIS TIME YOU KILLED OFF THE MIDDLE AND LOWER MIDDLE CLASS WITH YOUR GREED

Larry Lee Moniz6 months agoin reply to Karl Egner

Get a grip... this is just a song, Alex P. Keaton was just a character, and Family Ties was just a TV show.> >>

A bit of advice that I received from a friend on how to shoot skyrockets... if anyone is interested in this simple trick.

First, set up your camera for the exposure you want (with about a ten second exposure. The aperture can be anywhere from f/7 to f/16. Last year I chose f/10 to get a certain sharpness on my shots. ISO is up to the shooter. I chose 160 last year and it worked pretty well. Be certain that you are shooting in RAW and not Jpeg.

Now here's the trick...

Set your camera into Bulb mode. When the skyrockets start shooting, hit your shutter release at the start of the rocket's ascent. When the rocket explodes, let it fully dissipate and then hit the shutter release button again.

I know it sounds simple, but by doing this you'll get a perfect burst every time.

Have fun tonight if you are shooting a fireworks display. I look forward to seeing the results of my many photographer friends who will be out tonight.

===First sunrise of 2014- happy new year folks!
===Matt GranzThe Sequoia National Forest and Light Rays.

A nice post processing lesson by my friend Darvin Atkeson as he's staying over at my place before tonight's fireworks show. I wasn't too happy with the way my shot came out, but after a few pointers on luminosity masks and such from Darv I am seriously happy with the final product. — atSequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks.
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bad government supported by divided opposition with Joh for Canberra and Peacock .. but .. it was the best government of the ALP to date .. it just wasn't good .. Australia card? Banana Republic? The re-election secured extraordinary pensions for its' ministers without any responsibility to the public. But they bragged they weren't as bad as Whitlam. - ed
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some people don't like to eat swiss cheese because they don't like all the holes.... but I find that you can just eat around the holes...
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<Anne Frank was a very special girl, but not very wise in the area of morality. How she could believe that people are basically good after seeing what the Nazis did is quite foolish. Let us all remember that she was only 13 years old.

The goal of Judaism is to make people "good," but unfortunately the reality is that many people are evil, or at the very least not so good!!! According to the Torah, we are born with a Yetzer Tov and a Yetzer Hara--a will to do good and a will to do bad. We are not born "good at heart." We have to learn goodness, just like we have to learn chemistry and algebra!!!>

I don't judge her or her dad. Maybe, if I could give them a much longer life together .. but even so .. She lived in a wall, not far from where a cousin of mine went mad in another wall. We never met, but I love her, and wish things had been different. But in all things there is reason. And I think part of that here is to learn humbleness. - ed===
===Michelle MalkinHappy New Year, everyone! Sharing one of my fave pix from 2013 - taken at Red Rocks CO in May. Here's to life, love & liberty in 2014. I wish you all the best & will keep working/fighting hard to secure the blessings we hold dear.
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===QUESTION: If Abbas' mandate ran out in 2009 and he has not held an election since, would that not mean that anything he negotiates has no legal basis to it? By not being held to a rule of law, the US is not treating them as a serious entity. This decision to release killers back into Israeli society is based on lawlessness; thwarting the legal system in Israel and making negotiations with a PA entity that does not have a mandate to govern. Additionally, let us not forget that the PA and Abbas are a direct link back to Hitler via Arafat and the grand mufti Husseini who was a collaborator with Hitler to exterminate Jews in British Mandated Palestine.
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<We knew there were strings attached to releasing Jonathan Pollard. Regardless of any so-called promises I still believe it will not happen. Obama has proven time and again that he is a liar who can never be trusted.>

The Old Has Gone,The new New Has Come.I wish you happy new year.As a believer in Jesus, you are a new creation. The Scripture says,“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come.” (2 Corinthians 5:17, NIV) You have a new spirit and a new life. There may be “old” things in your life that you are trying to get rid of. Maybe you have old habits or addictions that you want to change. Remember today that the new has come. It’s a new year with new opportunities, and it’s time for you to be the new you. Let this be the year that you break old habits and addictions. Let this be the year that you move forward into a new life of victory. Let this be the year that you take hold of all the spiritual blessings the Lord has promised — peace, health, protection and victory.

Be encouraged today because no matter what is happening in your life right now, you have a chance for a new beginning. Choose to leave the old behind — leave behind old behaviors, old thinking, old words, and old mindsets and embrace the new by faith. Trust that He is leading you, and this year, declare His Word and embrace the blessings that He has prepared for you.This is the year you are waiting for,your year of greatness.God bless you.

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Prophetic word.This is the year you have been waiting for,year of greatness......…

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PRAY ALONG.Father in heaven,I thank You for making me strong in You. I trust that You are working in my life, even in the midst of the storms. I choose today to leave behind the old life and ask that You empower me by Your spirit to drop my bad behavior this year behind.As i cross over 2014 help me to understand Your plan and know the truth of Your Word that sets me free. Thank You for a new year and a new season of blessing in Jesus’ name. Amen.

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As you reflect on the events over this year, remember that the storms you have encountered have only made you stronger. You are wiser, you are more alive, and you are headed for victory come 2014. Your brightest days are right out in front of you. Always remember that with God on your side, nothing can hold you back.

The Scripture says."The righteous shall flourish like a palm tree."(Psalm 92:12, NIV). See, the reason God said we’d flourish like a palm tree is because He knew there would be difficult times. He knew things would come against us to try to steal our joy and victory. But God said, “You’re going to be like a palm tree because when the storms of life blow, you are going to come right back up stronger than before.”

Have you ever seen a palm tree in the midst of a great storm? That tree may be bent so far over that it’s almost touching the ground, but when the wind finally stops, that palm tree bounces right back up. What’s interesting is that while that palm tree is hunched over under the pressure of the storm, it is actually becoming stronger. Forget all those obstacles of 2013,next year,you are a winner and stronger in the Lord.Nothing will shake you any more,in Jesus name,Amen.

Putting off the old, putting on the new

31 December 2013

If you listen to what people say at the end of December I expect that you will hear someone talk about ‘putting off the old year and putting on the new’. It’s a seasonal version of that deep-seated human desire: the wish to start all over again. Who of us has not at some time wished that we could have a new beginning? To have a second opportunity at a day, a year or even a life? Very few people can look at their past without some sense of regret, some awareness that they could have done more that was good and less that was bad. ‘Could do better’ is the verdict most of us have over our past. This promise of a new start is the appealing attraction of a New Year. Oprah Winfrey, whom we might have thought had little to regret, has said, ‘Cheers to a New Year and another chance for us to get it right.’ It is a toast that many people would echo.

Yet there are problems with the hope that the New Year offers. For one thing, what we are does not conveniently end at midnight on 31st December, as if the passing of the year somehow wiped the stains off the slate of human nature. Indeed, much of the unease we feel when we look at our past is due to the uncomfortable realisation that yesterday’s pattern is likely to be repeated tomorrow. 2013’s mistakes will most probably reappear in 2014. Far from being able to stride out bold and free into the landscape of the New Year, we find ourselves weighed down by bad habits and weaknesses. Like the unfortunate Bill Murray in the film Groundhog Day we find that we are condemned to endlessly relive our failures. The New Year becomes not so much a source of new hope, but a merciless cycle for a repeat performance. In fact, many people are so aware of the certainty of their moral failure that the only resolution they can consider is to avoid resolutions.

Can we hope for a new life, whether at a New Year, or at any time? It is significant how little hope or help there is on offer. Biology coldly tells us that we are inescapably programmed by our genes to be what we are. The wisdom offered by psychologists and sociologists tell us that it is our upbringing or our culture that locks us into who we are. Reincarnation holds out the possibility of a ‘better luck next time’! Elsewhere in the religious systems of the world we find only a faint hope that God (or the gods) may – if we are good or lucky – overlook our mistakes.

If we survey the world of belief and knowledge we find the promise of genuine change is only to be found with one person, Jesus Christ. He offers new life in the fullest possible way. He deals with the past as God for us, giving forgiveness and in doing so preventing past failures from contaminating our future. He gives us encouragement for the future by offering us the gift of the Holy Spirit as God withus. We can travel unburdened and with God’s presence into the future.

Interestingly, the origin of the wish to ’put off the old and put on the new’ probably comes from something the apostle Paul wrote to the church in Ephesus: ’You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness’ (Ephesians 4:22-24).

This New Year, why not resolve in those words of Paul ‘to put off the old and to put on the new self’? We can’t alter the past, but we can bring the past to the altar of God. So let’s bring our past to God and embrace the future with him into 2014 with anticipation and expectation for new beginnings and possibilities.

This is the year, I hope more of us than ever will ‘have a go’ – start new businesses, build new houses, undertake further study, make investments and plan a future: because that’s how we build the stronger and more prosperous country that we all want.

The Government will do its part: we are scrapping bad taxes, cutting red and green tape, ending waste, building infrastructure and strengthening the Budget.

My plan is to give you more choice, more freedom and fewer government demands – so that you can build a better future for yourself and our country.

During the Middle Ages under the influence of the Christian Church, many countries moved the start of the year to one of several important Christian festivals – December 25 (the Nativity of Jesus), March 1, March 25 (the Annunciation), or even Easter. Eastern European countries (most of them with populations showing allegiance to the Orthodox Church) began their numbered year on September 1 from about 988.

In England, January 1 was celebrated as the New Year festival, but from the 12th century to 1752 the year in England began on March 25 (Lady Day). So, for example, the Parliamentary record notes the execution of Charles I as occurring on January 30, 1648, (as the year did not end until March 24), although modern histories adjust the start of the year to January 1 and record the execution as occurring in 1649.

Most western European countries changed the start of the year to January 1 before they adopted the Gregorian calendar. For example, Scotland changed the start of the Scottish New Year to January 1 in 1600. England, Ireland and the British colonies changed the start of the year to January 1 in 1752. Later that year in September, the Gregorian calendar was introduced throughout Britain and the British colonies. These two reforms were implemented by the Calendar (New Style) Act 1750.

===“This is what the LORD says— he who made a way through the sea, a path through the mighty waters, “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.” - Isaiah 43:16, 18-19===

Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon

December 31: Morning

"In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, if any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink." - John 7:37

Patience had her perfect work in the Lord Jesus, and until the last day of the feast he pleaded with the Jews, even as on this last day of the year he pleads with us, and waits to be gracious to us. Admirable indeed is the longsuffering of the Saviour in bearing with some of us year after year, notwithstanding our provocations, rebellions, and resistance of his Holy Spirit. Wonder of wonders that we are still in the land of mercy!

Pity expressed herself most plainly, for Jesus cried, which implies not only the loudness of his voice, but the tenderness of his tones. He entreats us to be reconciled. "We pray you," says the Apostle, "as though God did beseech you by us." What earnest, pathetic terms are these! How deep must be the love which makes the Lord weep over sinners, and like a mother woo his children to his bosom! Surely at the call of such a cry our willing hearts will come.

Provision is made most plenteously; all is provided that man can need to quench his soul's thirst. To his conscience the atonement brings peace; to his understanding the gospel brings the richest instruction; to his heart the person of Jesus is the noblest object of affection; to the whole man the truth as it is in Jesus supplies the purest nutriment. Thirst is terrible, but Jesus can remove it. Though the soul were utterly famished, Jesus could restore it.

Proclamation is made most freely, that every thirsty one is welcome. No other distinction is made but that of thirst. Whether it be the thirst of avarice, ambition, pleasure, knowledge, or rest, he who suffers from it is invited. The thirst may be bad in itself, and be no sign of grace, but rather a mark of inordinate sin longing to be gratified with deeper draughts of lust; but it is not goodness in the creature which brings him the invitation, the Lord Jesus sends it freely, and without respect of persons.

Personality is declared most fully. The sinner must come to Jesus, not to works, ordinances, or doctrines, but to a personal Redeemer, who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree. The bleeding, dying, rising Saviour, is the only star of hope to a sinner. Oh for grace to come now and drink, ere the sun sets upon the year's last day!

No waiting or preparation is so much as hinted at. Drinking represents a reception for which no fitness is required. A fool, a thief, a harlot can drink; and so sinfulness of character is no bar to the invitation to believe in Jesus. We want no golden cup, no bejewelled chalice, in which to convey the water to the thirsty; the mouth of poverty is welcome to stoop down and quaff the flowing flood. Blistered, leprous, filthy lips may touch the stream of divine love; they cannot pollute it, but shall themselves be purified. Jesus is the fount of hope. Dear reader, hear the dear Redeemer's loving voice as he cries to each of us,

"IF ANY MAN THIRST,
LET HIM
COME UNTO ME
AND DRINK."

Evening

"The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved." - Jeremiah 8:20

Not saved! Dear reader, is this your mournful plight? Warned of the judgment to come, bidden to escape for your life, and yet at this moment not saved! You know the way of salvation, you read it in the Bible, you hear it from the pulpit, it is explained to you by friends, and yet you neglect it, and therefore you are not saved. You will be without excuse when the Lord shall judge the quick and dead. The Holy Spirit has given more or less of blessing upon the word which has been preached in your hearing, and times of refreshing have come from the divine presence, and yet you are without Christ. All these hopeful seasons have come and gone--your summer and your harvest have past--and yet you are not saved. Years have followed one another into eternity, and your last year will soon be here: youth has gone, manhood is going, and yet you are not saved. Let me ask you--will you ever be saved? Is there any likelihood of it? Already the most propitious seasons have left you unsaved; will other occasions alter your condition? Means have failed with you--the best of means, used perseveringly and with the utmost affection--what more can be done for you? Affliction and prosperity have alike failed to impress you; tears and prayers and sermons have been wasted on your barren heart. Are not the probabilities dead against your ever being saved? Is it not more than likely that you will abide as you are till death forever bars the door of hope? Do you recoil from the supposition? Yet it is a most reasonable one: he who is not washed in so many waters will in all probability go filthy to his end. The convenient time never has come, why should it ever come? It is logical to fear that it never will arrive, and that Felix like, you will find no convenient season till you are in hell. O bethink you of what that hell is, and of the dread probability that you will soon be cast into it!

Reader, suppose you should die unsaved, your doom no words can picture. Write out your dread estate in tears and blood, talk of it with groans and gnashing of teeth: you will be punished with everlasting destruction from the glory of the Lord, and from the glory of his power. A brother's voice would fain startle you into earnestness. O be wise, be wise in time, and ere another year begins, believe in Jesus, who is able to save to the uttermost. Consecrate these last hours to lonely thought, and if deep repentance be bred in you, it will be well; and if it lead to a humble faith in Jesus, it will be best of all. O see to it that this year pass not away, and you an unforgiven spirit. Let not the new year's midnight peals sound upon a joyless spirit! Now, now, NOW believe, and live.===

4. A priest who sealed the covenant made by Nehemiah and the people to serve the Lord. As further references are encountered to this act, it will be borne in mind that it represented the re-dedication of the people to the worship and work of God after their return from the Babylonian captivity.

5. Another priest who returned from exile. Perhaps the same person as the preceding Abijah (Neh. 12:1-4, 12-17). Also the name of the mother of Hezekiah, king of Judah (2 Chron. 29:1; she is also called Abi, 2 Kings 18:2).===Today marks the final Bible reading of 2010 and concludes with the final chapters of the Old and New Testaments.

Today's reading: Malachi 1-4, Revelation 22 (NIV)

View today's reading on Bible GatewayToday's Old Testament reading: Malachi 1-41 An oracle: The word of the LORD to Israel through Malachi.

Jacob Loved, Esau Hated2 "I have loved you," says the LORD.

"But you ask, 'How have you loved us?'

"Was not Esau Jacob's brother?" the LORD says. "Yet I have loved Jacob, 3 but Esau I have hated, and I have turned his mountains into a wasteland and left his inheritance to the desert jackals."

Today's New Testament reading: Revelation 22The River of Life1 Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb 2 down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. 3 No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. 4 They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. 5 There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever.

Many years after Isaiah and Micah prophesied about Jesus the Messiah, the apostle Paul wrote a letter to the church at Colosse to tell them that Jesus was both God and a human being. Paul included this beautiful hymn in praise of the glory and supremacy of Christ.

The Supremacy of Christ

15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. 17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. 19 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him,20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.

Further Study

JUST THE FACTS

Paul said that Jesus Christ is the "firstborn." (v. 15) Of what is he the firstborn?

What did Jesus Christ create? (v. 16)

Of what is Jesus Christ the head? (v. 18)

LET'S TALK

What does it mean that Jesus Christ is the "image of the invisible God"? (v. 15)

What do you think Paul meant when he said that in Jesus Christ "all things hold together"? (v. 17)

WHY THIS MATTERS

Jesus was born in a small town and lived among common people like us, but Paul gives us the bigger picture of who Christ really is and what Christ has done for us.

POINTS OF INTEREST

1:19 In Paul's day, some people taught that matter--anything you could taste, see or touch--was evil, so the human body was evil. They said a person's spirit was "trapped" in an evil body and could escape only by some secret knowledge. So they said Jesus couldn't be both God and man because he lived in a body.

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About Me

I'm author of History in a Year by the Conservative Voice aka History of the World in a Year by the Conservative Voice.

I'm the Conservative Voice.

I'm looking to make contact with those who might use my skill.

I have an m-audio mobile pre amp fed by the audiotechnica 2041sp condensor mic pack. Prior to 15/4/06, I'd used a Shure sm-58 that required a nuclear blast to register a sound or the internal mic of my aged imac, which has a penchance to recording my breathing. I also used a Griffin itrip, until the community convinced me it was not hiding my talent as well as the other mics.

I am a Writer and an occasional Math Teacher (Sir, what's the occasion?). I like to sing, having no instrumental talent (cannot even clap in time, and yes, I'm aware singing badly IS obnoxious).

I have performed the finale to Les Miserables before an audience of 500. I have also sung before a similar audience (students, parents) renditions of 'I Will' (Beatles), 'Mr Cairo' (Jon Vangelis) and 'I am Australian' (Seekers). Now I seek another profession because the audience hates me ..